Public meets, mingles with Hamilton school board candidates

Ryan Jenkins has emailed and asked every single one of the 10 candidates for Hamilton County’s school board questions related to their campaign.

“I asked them why they wanted to run. I asked the incumbents about their accomplishments,” Jenkins said. “I felt like since I’m in a school, it’s important for me to know about who wants to run the schools.”

Jenkins, 10, is a fifth-grader at Soddy Elementary, and he is the type of informed person that the League of

Women Voters of Chattanooga hopes all Hamilton County voters will be.

The group, in partnership with the Hamilton

County Council of Parent Teacher Associations, hosted a meet-andgreet forum Monday night featuring the candidates for the five open seats on the Hamilton

County Board of Education. The event was held at the Public Library downtown.

“Thanks to the citizens who have come out to meet their candidates,” said Lisa Bilbrey Hyder, co-president of the Chattanooga chapter of the league. “The League encourages you to get out and vote.”

All but one of the candidates, Tucker McClendon, of District 8, was present. They presented opening statements and then were available to answer questions from the public.

Henry Slayton, a resident of District 5, said he was most concerned about building character, etiquette and how children behaved in schools.

“What I’m most concerned about is the whole system,” Slayton said. “What about etiquette? What about picking up behind yourself? You can’t get into the corporate world if you don’t know etiquette.”

Longtime retired educator Bonnie Gravitte, 84, of District 3, said that a child’s education starts at home, and added that school board members needed to “love children.”

Her husband, Ed Gravitte, 88, said he judged board members by what he saw for 37 years when his wife came home after teaching all day.

“Thanks to the citizens who have come out to meet their candidates. The League encourages you to get out and vote.”

— LISA BILBREY HYDER, CO-PRESIDENT OF THE CHATTANOOGA CHAPTER OF THE LEAGUE OF WOMEN VOTERS

“I would wonder how she would teach through, all day long … and at 10 or 10:30 p.m. sit in the living room with those papers, and so many times I saw her with tears in her eyes,” Gravitte said.

Most of the candidates, who have been campaigning for months, focused on their backgrounds and what they brought to the role.

Some of the most pressing issues school board candidates have faced on the campaign trail include the question of inequities and how to solve them in Hamilton County Schools, how segregated schools should be addressed, school choice, safety and the role of early childhood education.

The candidates have faced off in a variety of settings, including debates hosted in each district by UnifiEd and Chattanooga 2.0 and in a debate broadcast by WTCI on July 12.

The nonpartisan school board election is part of the general election on Aug. 2.